Barresi Lab Art

Michael Barresi, a studio art minor in college, has enjoyed trying to infuse art into his science.

He is also an avid photographer. Some examples of Michael’s art are shown below.

Mosaic Zebrafish, 2001.

Back in the day, before digital microscopy data was collected on slide film. Usually the scientist would take three exposures bracketing the presumed ideal brightness. This often left many discarded slides. In this piece, Michael used the discarded slide film from his doctoral research to create a mosaic of an adult zebrafish.

Drawing of axonal anatomy of the embryonic forebrain, 2004.

The Barresi lab studies commissure formation – the neural structures that connect the two sides of the central nervous system. Here is a drawing depicting the positions of the neural projections crossing the midline of the zebrafish forebrain. These projections are called axons. Green projections are the commissures, one in the telencephalon (Anterior commissure, upper band) and one in the diencephalon (Post optic commissure, lower band). The red axons denote the optic nerves leaving the eyes, which also cross the midline forming the well known optic chiasm (just like in humans).

Line illustration of developmental progression of zebrafish embryo, 2010.

From top to bottom is illustrated the progression of a one cell embryo to 4-cells, to a bastula with 1000s of cells. Then 4th from the top is a top view of a gastrula with its characteristic dorsal blastopore lip (aka “shield”) to the bottom, which then through epiboly movements the yolk becomes completely enveloped and somitogenesis begins (two somites visible – look carefully). Continued segments form from anterior to posterior in the trunk and brain ventricles and eyes take shape as seen in the embryo third up from the bottom. Second from the bottom is a 24hpf pharyngula staged embryo (point at which all vertebrate embryos look very similar). Lastly a free swimming larvae.

About Us

The Barresi Lab studies brain development in zebrafish.
Dr. Barresi is co-author of the textbook “Developmental Biology”